Andrew is back with another book review. It is another title on programming that is directly associated with what we do. So take a look and share your thoughts. Do you have this book? What do you think? Any other titles that you think would compliment this one on the shelves of EH-Netters?

As stated in its tagline, Violent Python is A Cookbook for Hackers, Forensic Analysts, Penetration Testers, and Security Engineers. This is a relatively broad scope and demonstrates how Python can be used to automate and assist with tasks across a variety of diverse InfoSec disciplines. However, breadth does not preclude depth in this case; the exercises build up to a fairly advanced level. Violent Python is authored primarily by TJ O’Connor, with Rob Frost contributing a chapter on Web Reconnaissance, and Mark Baggett acting as the Technical Editor. A quick glance at their collective credentials and experience undoubtedly creates high expectations for this title.

For those unfamiliar with cookbook-style resources, the contents are made up of dozens of short, self-contained “recipes.” The objective is not to comprehensively teach Python from the ground-up, but rather present scripts that focus on a specific task. The end result is that the book demonstrates how powerful just a few dozen lines of Python code can be (even the longest of recipes rarely exceed 100 lines). However, while the aim is not to teach Python programming in general, useful tips and tricks will surely be acquired simply by working through the exercises. The recipes were created in a modular fashion, with code reusability in mind, and they can easily be incorporated into larger projects. Let’s take a closer look.

Don

Last edited by don on Thu Feb 28, 2013 1:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I saw the link to this review from the SANS news list today. I wanted to say it is spot on. I read 10-15 security books a year and this is my favorite one since Practical Malware Analysis came out early last year. The lessons are great and the scripts are incredibly useful. They can all be easily expanded for your own needs.

Do not hesitate to spend your money on this book, it is well worthwhile. Even though I have access to it from Safari, I'll be buying a physical copy to go on my frequent reference shelf at home.

I wasn't impressed with the Safari version of it. All the images were broken, but got my copy last week (figures I was out of town when it arrived).

Now to find a decent beginner book. I have Hello World (bought a couple of years ago, to spend time with GF a the time's kid). It was ok, but not what I was looking for. Tried dive in to python, and dive in to python3, but meh on those as well. neither really grabbed me.

I've been working the Codecademy course and loving it. I am finding the further I go into the exercises the easier it got to figure out what was needed. I think I am lesson 5 working with lists and dictionaries. So they get you through some basics per lesson and at the end they toss you a project. Some are pretty simple but I find myself going to the whiteboard to throw in the pseudo code to figure out the more complex ones. They also have an achievement system if you are the gamer type. One night I actually cheered out loud when I completed one of the harder problems. So once this is over I will probably pick up this book to drive it a bit further.